From Tomb of Unknown To Grave of Lieut. Blassie

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Unknown no longer, Lieut. Michael J. Blassie was laid to rest today in Missouri soil, buried at a veteran's cemetery near his childhood home, over the hill from the Mississippi River.

For the first time since his Air Force jet crashed in South Vietnam in 1972, Lieutenant Blassie rests beneath a headstone bearing his name, at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery south of St. Louis. His body had been interred for 14 years at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington.

The full military funeral was held under gray skies and attended by hundreds of veterans, friends, family members and well-wishers, including Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen. A formation of four F-15 jets flew overhead, and one of the four broke away in the traditional ''missing man'' salute.

''He was strong, he was fearless, and he loved what he was doing,'' said Patricia S. Blassie, one of the flier's four siblings, all of whom spoke at the graveside service. ''He was the heart, the soul and the spirit that is America.''

Lieutenant Blassie was 24 years old and a highly decorated Air Force pilot when his A-37 attack jet was shot down on May 11, 1972, outside the South Vietnamese village of An Loc, near the Cambodian border.

The fighting was so intense in the area that the site could not be searched immediately. When remains were found in October 1972 the bones were tentatively identified as those of Lieutenant Blassie, based on an identification card and other effects. After the remains had been held in the Army's Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii for eight years, the classification was changed to ''unknown'' in 1980.

On Memorial Day 1984, the remains were buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns alongside unknown servicemen from World War I, World War II and Korea.

An investigation by CBS News prompted the Defense Department to review the case. The CBS investigation suggested that the military review board that had changed the designation on Lieutenant Blassie's remains to ''unknown'' did so under pressure from veterans' groups to honor a casualty from the Vietnam War.

In May, Lieutenant Blassie's remains were disinterred and a sample of mitochondrial DNA was removed from the pelvis and matched to a sample provided by the flier's mother, Jean.

The remains were brought to St. Louis on Friday, and relatives and friends gathered at Scott Air Force Base, near Lieutenant Blassie's hometown of Florissant, a suburb of St. Louis. A memorial service was held on Friday night.

The grave site is in the oldest part of the 172-year-old cemetery and is surrounded by the graves of veterans of World War I and World War II. Several graves contain remains of more than one person. Ms. Blassie, who is a captain in the Air Force Reserve, explained the family's quest to identify Lieutenant Blassie's remains and to bury him close to home.

''I kept searching my soul and asking myself what was so important about just six bones,'' she said. ''But the answer came from my heart. It's important because it's my brother.''

George J. Blassie, who was 11 when he was taken out of school and told that his brother had died, described a loving mentor whom he has missed since.

''Part of my future was shattered,'' he said. ''But he is alive in my mind and my heart. He deserves to be known.''

William Parnell, a retired Army colonel who was part of the rescue effort that recovered Lieutenant Blassie's remains in 1972, said he found the service this morning harder to bear than the funeral of his own father, a veteran of World Wars I and II.

''Every soldier, sailor, airman or marine knows that if they are killed in combat, somebody will find their remains and bring them home,'' Mr. Parnell said. ''We thought we had -- I touched that boy's bones. We put them on a helicopter taking out the wounded. But a series of administrative errors were made, and it created a disaster. Now, finally, this young man has come home to Missouri.''

When the funeral was over and the Blassie family had departed, Stewart Piper, who had served in the Army infantry in World War II, strolled over to get a closer look at the grave.

''I see this ceremony as a real plus to our Government and to his family,'' Mr. Piper said. ''For his family, to find out the truth. And for the Government, it shows that the country could admit it made a mistake and do the right thing.''